Crime-fighter on Ireland’s gritty streets

Jack Taylor is a private investigator in Galway, on the western coast of Ireland – when he can rouse himself from an alcoholic stupor. His booze-fueled exploits got him thrown off the police force in Galway, and his relationship with his former co-workers remains tense.

But Taylor is good at what he does. He’s relentless in bringing murderers to justice, even if that means breaking the law himself.

In this series of three 90-minute movies, Jack is played by Iain Glen, whose face and compelling voice are familiar to many. He portrays Ser Jonah Mormont in HBO’s popular “Game of Thrones,” and he played Sir Richard Carlisle, the London newspaper magnate who was briefly engaged to Lady Mary Crawley on the second season of “Downton Abbey.”

While Sir Richard had an edge of danger to him, he also had a suave side that’s missing in Jack Taylor. Taylor is a rough-and-tumble guy who’s slept in more than a few gutters and brawled with the best. He frequently sleeps on a bench in his favorite bar. He doesn’t shave and his clothes look like he’s slept in them, which he frequently has. He’s not above breaking into a suspect’s house to find evidence.

Even so, there’s something noble about Jack – an Irish Don Quixote tilting at whatever windmill presents itself. He’s well-suited to the overall dark tone of this series, set in cold, rainy Galway. All three stories have many twists and turns, so just when you think you’ve solved the mystery, another surprise awaits.

Here’s a rundown of the three episodes in Set I. Since new episodes already are showing in Britain, it’s reasonable to expect that Set II will be released on disc in a year or so.

“The Guard”: This episode gets its name from the Irish police, which are called the Guard. The opener sets up Jack’s thorny relationship with the cops, though one officer, Kate, has a soft spot for him and secretly helps him with his cases. In this one, the body of a young girl is found on the same beach where another girl’s body was found months before. Two other girls of about the same age also were found dead, and all four are believed to have been suicides. A woman, Ann Hennessey, hires Jack to find her daughter Sarah, who has disappeared. Jack’s search for her raises more questions than answers. Is there a serial killer on the loose?

“The Pikemen”: Jack returns to Galway after a year away and immediately gets drawn into a case involving what appear to be vigilantes on the streets of the city. An acquaintance asks Jack to investigate the apparent suicide of his son, who fell – or was pushed – off a balcony. The grieving father does not believe his son killed himself. At the same time, TV newscasters hail the recent decrease in crime in Galway. A friend tells Jack that one suspect was found with his arm cut off and another with his tongue cut out. It looks like vigilantes, and Jack is hot on their trail. Their symbol and weapon of choice is a pike – a combination of spear and ax – and they call themselves the Pikemen.

“The Magdalen Martyrs”: In the 1960s, a group of girls with less-than-stellar reputations and nowhere else to go wound up living in dormitories run by nuns, where they worked long hours in the laundry, making money for the church while being treated badly. One nun was particularly sadistic to the girls, who dubbed her “Sister Lucifer.” The daughter of one of those girls, who died a tragic death many years later, asks Jack to find Lucifer so she can confront her about her deeds. She loans Jack her mother’s diary from those days, which details almost unthinkable cruelty. Jack’s search takes him very close to home in more ways than one. This is the most poignant of the three episodes.